Novels

Act of FearDan Fortune, Private Detective
Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel
“Finely honed suspense… May he thrive.” — New York Times

Back in the day, the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City wasn’t hip, chic, expensive, and yuppified, with a Starbucks on every block. In fact, it was such a lousy place to live, you could hardly give the real estate away. Populated by gangsters, grandmothers with baseball bats, and parents working long hours on the wrong side of the law to pay for tenement apartments, the place was also colorful, with memorable characters straight out of a Damon Runyon novel.

It was in this live-by-your-wits atmosphere that Dan Fortune grew up. One of his best friends was Andy Pappas. They broke into the holds of ships together, stealing cargo, watching one another’s back. But things happen. Dan lost his arm in a failed robbery, and decided it was time to find another way to make a living. With the people and geography of Chelsea his only areas of expertise, he put out his shingle: Dan Fortune, Private Detective.

But Andy liked his life of crime, and power was addictive. Andy stayed the course, killing his way up until he took over the docks. He was boss of bosses, a vicious racketeer. Still, he’d let Dan be familiar, call him by his first name, even give him crap – until now. Now Dan is trying to track down a teenager named Jo-Jo Olsen. It looks like a routine missing-persons case, until Jo-Jo’s friends start dying violently just before Dan can question them. Then Andy Pappas warns Dan that unless he cools it, he’ll end up on the pile of corpses. It doesn’t make sense. Why does Andy Pappas care about Jo-Jo, and what does Dan need to do to stay alive long enough to find out and save the kid?  (More)

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Paul Shaw, Private Detective
“Tension-packed … entertaining.” — Kirkus Reviews

Dennis Lynds’s second New York City series stars Paul Shaw in some of the most exciting and moving mysteries of Lynds’s career. Paul Shaw is married to a Broadway star and enjoys living in luxury with her on Central Park South. But it’s important to him to have work, too, something he does well, and as it turns out, although he’s not a great actor, he’s a great detective. Then there’s the fact that, against his better judgment, he believes in helping those who need it. Before going home to the privileged life he’s not sure he deserves, he wants to make a difference, which is dangerous in the murder and violence business. (MORE)

Kane Jackson, Industrial Spy
“If company secrets are being leaked, get Jackson.” — New York Times

The five Kane Jackson books are believed to be the first corporate espionage series ever. One of Dennis Lynds’s most interesting characters, the closemouthed Kane is cold and cynical, a smoker and hard drinker, who works undercover and often uses his military background to get the job done. But then, he knows just how far some executives will go to steal billion-dollar secrets — or to protect the ones in-house. The work is a natural for Kane — he spent several eye-opening years in U.S. military intelligence, and as far as he’s concerned, the Soviet secret police were soft targets compared to an American executive in business trouble. In the cut-throat world of industrial espionage, there are no rules, and the ruthless thrive. Kane will go even further than them to protect the innocent and weak and serve justice in this series The Financial Times hailed as “excellent.” (MORE)

Buena Costa County, California
“Mythical.” — New York Times

Rugged and full of individualists, fictional Buena Costa County is an exciting and sometimes dangerous place to live. The New York Times described the remote county as “Mythical … more frontier America than anything else, where the rules of civilization sit lightly.” In this character-rich Southern California landscape of mountains and sea, ranches and towns, Lynds created a lauded and innovative work — a series of six books in which the lives and careers of police, politicians, wealthy horse people, and dazzling movie stars intersect when violence explodes. (MORE)

Other Mystery Novels

Written more than twenty years apart, these two non-series mysteries take place in Southern California and star two very different private investigators: Woman in Marble features George Malcolm, a quiet, deadly private investigator, while The Cadillac Cowboy is told through the eyes of retired CIA officer Ford Morgan. Lynds’s interests and sources were wide-ranging, and both novels bristle with insider details while being enormously entertaining. (MORE)

Other Books & Stories

  • Science Fiction Novels
  • Literary Novels
  • Mystery Short Story Anthologies
  • Literary Short Story Anthologies